Forum Discussion
Simplify and improve visualisation for variable library importation within pipeline
Hi LouisPaulVlx,
As AntoineW stated,
Today the pipeline UI only lets you link library variables one at a time, and there is no grouping in the Variables pane. That is expected for the current preview.
To avoid the 40-click setup, I’d switch from “many variables per source” to a single config per source and parse it inside the pipeline: Put one JSON string per source in the Variable Library,
e.g. SRC_A_Config = {"Server":"...","Db":"...","Table":"...","Key":"..."}.
In your activity settings, read fields with the expression builder, for example: @json(pipeline().libraryVariables.SRC_A_Config).
This reduces each source from 10 linked variables to exactly 1, while still letting you parameterize everything. Variable Libraries and pipeline integration are documented here: Variable library integration with Data pipelines and the Variable Library overview/get-started docs here: Overview, Get started
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Hello LouisPaulVlx,
According to Microsoft’s documentation, the Variable Library feature is still in preview, and currently does not support bulk importing of variables from variable libraries into pipelines — you need to add each library variable reference individually.
Also, the UI doesn’t yet provide grouping or collapsing of variables by library in the pipeline’s variables pane. That kind of UI organization isn’t mentioned in the current docs.
So your suggestions (bulk import + better grouping) are valid feature requests. They’re not covered by what’s available today, but could improve usability a lot.
If you like, I can help you draft a request to Microsoft so these two features (bulk select/import & variable grouping) get considered.
I know some updates for Variable Library are coming soon — Microsoft shared at FabCon that improvements are rolling out (see the doc) which might bring a better experience for managing variables in pipelines
Hope it can help you !
Best regards,
Antoine